BBC will support Macs in iPlayer

Mac users won't be excluded from the BBC's plans for the future of media, BBC Futures boss confirms at Cannes industry event.

by
Jonny Evans| 19 Apr 07

A sustained voting campaign by Mac users demanding that the BBC support the platform by ensuring its online iPlayer broadcasts support the Mac may have achieved a little success, the BBC reports.

The BBC has been developing its yet-to-launch iPlayer service, an online service offering UK license-payers catch-up TV via the web and cable TV. It's expected to launch later this year.

While the BBC has always claimed a "platform-agnostic" agenda, the service as is has only offered support for Windows systems – but this seems set to change.

"The BBC's proposed iPlayer service, offering catch-up TV via the web and cable TV, would be re-engineered to work with Apple Macs and would eventually roll out to digital terrestrial TV (DTT) and set-top boxes," said BBC Head of Futures Ashley Highfield at an industry event in Cannes.

He slammed Apple's "proprietary and closed framework for DRM", but stressed: "It's one of our top priorities to re-engineer our proposed BBC iPlayer service to work on Macs."

The BBC also plans to open up its vast archive of video and audio in an on-demand trial involving over 20,000 people in the UK, Highfield said.

The aim is that one day in future any viewer will be able to access any BBC show ever broadcast using their TV or online service.